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The notorious Acht Acht, AFV Club German 8,8cm Flak 18 (AF 35088)
Due to Treaty of Versilles in 1919, the German Army was strictly limited in the application of anti-aircraft artillery. This was changed in Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932, in which other countries agreed the Germans could own equal defensive weapons. The engineers of Krupp submitted the 88mm Flak 18 anti-aircraft cannon prototype, based on design of swedish bofors in 1932. They started to mass product them in 1933. During the Spanish Civil War 1936 to 1939 the Flak 18 had its combat debut with the Condor Legion. The Flak 18 was designed with a high muzzle velocity and rate of fire to be prepared for future requirements and in 1938 armor-piercing-incendiary was introduced so the acht acht could serve in the anti-tank role also.
During the Blitzkrieg in 1940, the germans still used the 37mm Pak 35/36 in the primary anti-tank role. Those guns, that served their role in the Spanish Civil War were outdated and not capable to defeat the heavy armoured French and British tanks. Therefore in the battlefield the German Army used Flak 18 guns in an anti-tank role. For a long time it was the only capable anti-tank gun that could defeat any enemy tank at a safe distance. The German Army mounted 88mm guns in different chassis, to perform anti-aircraft, as well as anti-tank missions and some self propelled guns were built on the Sd.Kfz 8.
The Flak 18 is equipped with a barrel of 56 calibers length and mounted on a cruciform carriage to provide 360° fire. It was towed on Sd.Anh.201 bogies, single axle with dual tired on the rear axle. Although the Sd.Anh.201 didnīt have sufficient brakes, the gun was fired from the bogies in emergencies. The 88mm Flak 18 was equipped with a large shield to provide some protection agains hand arm fire and splinters. The flak 18 was well feared by the enemies and in the african theatre the were mentioned in a situation report of the U.S. defence ministry for causing heavy losses.
The model features a very nice machined aluminium barrel with rifling and some brass metal. The detail of the model is excellent although it shows more sink marks than I expected on an actual kit. Anyway, the kit is well engineered and builds easy to an impressing model. I replaced the rods of the elevator cylinder and air pressure barrel returner with injection needles. The front bogie was modified a little bit to make the front wheels steerable. the sidearms of the cruciform carriage can be folded to transport position and locked.
Painting was done with Tamiya German Grey as a base coat, and Tamiya Desert Yellow for the camouflage paint, thas was applied cloudy to let the Panzer Grey show through. The decals are bad! They are very finely printed, but disintegrated when I tried to use them. This was the biggest disappointment on the whole kit. I wanted to use a few killmarks but by sliding them from the sheet i had more than 20 part that were impossible to align.
The AFV Club Flak makes a very fine replica of the real gun, although some sink marks need filling and sanding. The decals, however are junk!
Cheers
Frank [View discussion] [Discuss my model]
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